Category Archives: Physical Human Body

DREAM: Gazelles Warn of Danger

When there is a message of warning in the dream, such as the one I describe below, it means that when you do the inner work to transform the negative emotion in the dream into something new then if something potentially negative happens in real life you will have the ability to create a really positive outcome. In this way, you can shift your reality into something truly amazing. It takes time and daily effort and the really incredible results will shock and amaze you!

The reason trauma can be healed when you understand the secret messages of your dreams is because dreams exist outside of time & space. When we understand a message in a dream we can learn something about ourselves, our circumstances, and the people around us and we can begin to see negative things coming before they happen. This helps us become more prepared and it empowers us to use our skills, capacities, talents & strengths to create extremely positive experiences for ourselves, our families and our communities.

Truth be told, if there were a reward for having the most foreboding dreams in a row, I think I would win. In the past two weeks in my dreams I am:

  • canoeing in a river swarming with hungry alligators
  • hiking on a trail with snakes and lions
  • confronting an enormous bear trying to get in my house
  • running to rescue my dog who’s been attacked on the face
  • watching a herd of gazelles run from an unknown predator

Readers familiar with the way I do dreamwork (which was created & developed by author Richard Hastings), will remember that the many animals showing up in these dreams carries a lot of meaning. Here are four things to keep in mind when dreaming about animals.

  1. Like humans, animals have two sides – a positive expression of their qualities & also a negative expression. Think of how a dog can by loyal and friendly but also vicious & attacking. Dreams about animals signal where some work can be done for the dreamer to be more of the positive & less of the negative.
  2. When new energy is opening up in the dreamer, oftentimes animal dreams show up which provides guidance and clarity. So I can say that the negative energy I’m dealing with is anger, jealousy, hurt, fear – especially of being attacked by someone/something lurking hidden beneath the surface. The positives opening up for me are: empowerment (bear energy), flexibility (snake energy), strength/courage (lion energy), and … I’m still working on the alligator and the gazelle…
  3. When we flip the negative emotion of the dream to its positive opposite then we shift our perceptions and can go for opportunities which can change our circumstances. I suspect the positive of the alligator is being able to be patient and wait for the right time to leap at a goal or opportunity. When I am a Positive Alligator then I don’t react to every passing whim or fancy or emotion. I can be clear-headed, focused & patiently waiting for the right opportunity to go for my goal.
  4. When the dream is positive and outcome is good then it’s a good idea to try to incorporate the qualities of the animal because they will help with the real life situations. If the outcome is negative, then it means some work needs to be done on the issues so the outcome can be positive.

Gazelles are fast (known to run up to 60km/hr) but in the dream when I see the gazelles run by signaling that a predator is coming I turn to run with them but I know I could never keep up with their speed and in fact my running slowly would make me more vulnerable if it’s a bear or mountain lion. So I turn back to see if anything is coming but it’s just a dark path. I wonder if I can hide or maybe climb a tree. Without knowing what the gazelles are running from I find it hard to know how to protect myself.

Running in dreams usually means wanting to escape something fearful in real life. Often times, the object of the fear is a person in a perceived position of power. Facing the fear means standing strong, having clear boundaries, and having the Courage to be really big to the task. People who are addicted to power have a lot of ways of trying to make their targets feel small. When we stand in our Truth & our own Empowerment then we can be really big to the task and not allow anyone to make us feel small or threatened.

There are a number of potentially negative situations which can happen, at home, in the workplace or in the community. There are a few things I’m facing right now – all of us are facing something to one degree or another. When we remember to hold a clear vision of a bright future in our mind & we take positive action towards our goals then we never need to fear any predator. We have all the skills, capacities, talents & tools needed to overcome ANY obstacle or challenge that faces us. When we dream about animals it’s a sure sign that great big new energy is opening up and exciting things are happening! We need not be afraid of the change and we can trust ourselves and our inner guidance to move us through any difficulty or deal with any challenge.

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Ask your Self: What am I invisioning happening in the future that scares me?

If the negative thing you imagine happening has HAPPENED to you in the past and you are afraid of it happening again, then this is a REAL FEAR and the solution is to have A LOT of Courage and to learn something new to deal with your current life circumstance.

If the negative thing you imagine happening in the future has never happened to you before but you have seen it happen to others (in real life, or movies, or on the news, etc) then the issue is ANXIETY. The solution for anxiety is to look back into your past, remember what you’ve done well & succeeded in before and then repeat those actions again with A LOT OF CONFIDENCE.

I will be writing a lot more about working with Fear & Anxiety in upcoming posts.

Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments below and remember to subscribe to Healing With Dreamwork so you can be notified when the next blog post is published.

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Trauma, Self-Destruction and….dreamwork for prisoners

For the past three years, I’ve been receiving dreams from men who are incarcerated in one of the largest correctional centers in Ontario, Canada. When they first send their dreams, I don’t ask what charges are held against them, nor do I ask how long they’ve been in jail, or how much longer they expect to be in jail. Instead, I just listen to what they want to tell me about their dreams. Sometimes they voluntarily share their charges, sometimes they don’t and both ways are fine. The reason I don’t ask about this directly is because I believe that True Justice is about seeing through one’s own eyes, and not through the eyes of others. I want to hear the dream and talk to the person and connect without judgement. Most times when others here of the work I do, one of their first questions to me is, “What was the guy charged with?” and my answer is usually, “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.” The work is about transformation not about assessing guilt or innocence. It’s not about focusing on the mistakes but about blowing up the positives.

One of the biggest problems in our culture today is that people tend to not want to see Truth for themselves and they tend to want others to do the work for them, such as leaving the decision to the courts. The reason this approach doesn’t always work is that there is always more to the story than what the courts can hear; moreover, the justice system as we know it today is an archaic & antiquated system which has not yet adapted to modern scientific knowledge about the brain, or new discoveries about how childhood trauma affects someone’s psychological make up in adulthood, or about how positive community environments can curb criminal-tendencies replacing them with unity-building capacities for well-being and achievement. As frustrating as the large-scale problem of the so-called “justice system” is, the solution is quite simple and easily achievable. To solve this problem, the key is to learn how to see through one’s own eyes and not through the eyes of others. The reason this is so very, very difficult at times is because it requires having the ability to recognize the Negative Truth about a situation and having the skills to know what to do with that knowledge.

What is Negative Truth? Negative Truth is what we see when we are looking at a situation and we realize something which is negative. Sometimes we so vehemently want to believe something is the way we want it to be but then we see it is not that way and in fact may even be the opposite of what we want, and in that case we must submit to the Negative Truth about a situation in order to deal with what is real, instead of engaging with an illusion. I’ll give you an example of what I mean so it is more clear.

In summer of 2013, I re-located from Fort McMurray, Alberta to London, Ontario when I accepted a teaching position at a private school. I accepted a lower-than usual salary in exchange for my daughter attending the school free of charge and this was a suitable arrangement for me. I’m breaking custom here to speak about my salary publicly but I am doing so in order to make a point. Not only did I accept a minimum salary for a teaching position, I also gave up a lot. At the time I was teaching830410_10152608938305595_760791799_o English as a Second Language at a college, plus I was publishing articles weekly in the daily newspaper, with my articles also publishing online. My career was exactly where I wanted it to be. Getting paid well to teach, getting paid well as a journalist, what could be better? The answer to that came when my daughter was offered a position at a private school and I was willing to give up my career path in order to adjust our lives to accommodate her education. I let go of my beautiful two-bedroom apartment, which I loved. I detached from a community-building initiative which I loved. I left my car. I left every item clothing and everything I owned and I accepted the teaching position and my daughter started school. Because I had given up so much for this new path in our lives, I had a lot of expectation about the good that would come out of it. I envisioned her attending this school from Grade Four to Grade 12. I envisioned teaching at the school for a decade and enjoying the benefits of working in the field I had studied and earned a degree in. I envisioned becoming an active and contributing member of our new community, sharing my talents, skills and enthusiasm with the school and nearby neighbourhoods. Little did I know that the vision I held in my mind was an illusion and it could never materialize. I thought I was re-creating the success I’d experienced in the city I’d been living before but I was wrong. 858902_10152608938905595_1160308277_o

Within months of my relocation across the country, whispers began spreading around the school that it was closing. The school closing would mean not only would I lose my job, but also that my daughter would lose the educational path her father and I had chosen for her. Before we even had time to unpack our belongings, we were already having to face the Negative Truth that moving had been a mistake and we had to find somewhere else to go. My own personal Negative Truth was that in fall of 2013, I had only been separated from my marriage for three years and had not yet rebuilt after that financial disaster. I didn’t use credit cards. Didn’t have a savings. Didn’t have a car. Didn’t own a home. And the only clothing I owned was what I had packed into a suitcase when I had left for vacation in the summer. I had packed a suitcase planning to visit friends in Ontario for a month but while I was visiting I was offered a job, which I accepted and then stayed in the city to begin settling in. That’s why when the school started to close in fall & winter of 2014 I was in such a terribly devastating position. Eventually I found new work, settled my daughter in a new school, and made the best of our new situation. But that experience taught me a very powerful life lesson about seeing the Negative Truth. Sometimes people will paint a picture with their words and give you a vision of what you can go for but then in reality that vision is unattainable and will never be achieved. I had a vision of teaching for a decade and providing my daughter with a quality private school education. But the Negative Truth is that there were hints that the school was closing even before we arrived and I had to face the fact, sooner than later, that the vision I had was just an illusion. In truth, I may have made a huge mistake when I left my teaching and journalism work in Alberta. But we can’t turn back the clock. We can’t take back something once it’s done. We have to just learn the lesson and move forward with what we’ve learned.

Even though this example of my story is not related to a “crime” per say I can still understand and have compassion for people who make choices which leads them on a path of self-destruction. I have done the same thing.

When I take calls from inmates & listen to their stories, I remember that we are all equal here on this earth. No human being is valued higher or lower than any other. We are all equal. And when I keep this in mind, I find the learning truly goes both ways & I am so grateful for this experience.

Clarity Comes From Clues in the Negative Emotions

I’m living in a cluttered space. Assailants enter the home. I’m on a rocky ship & the rooms start to spin. When I wake up I still feel dizzy – wondering what will help bring clarity and tranquility to the day. (To read this dream in full click here)

The powerful emotions in this dream appear negative but the secret key of working with dreams for personal growth is using the so-called negative dreams as CLUES for unlocking the mysterious puzzles preventing us from having the harmony & peace we want in our lives. Dreams like this often cause feelings of confusion, being disorientated, unmotivated or somewhat powerless. But when I work THROUGH the metaphor then I feel clear-minded, focused, motivated & powerful.

Here are some things to consider, perhaps in a mediation:

  1. GO INTO the NEGATIVE, instead of avoid it.
  2. Focus on one inner goal/intention at a time. (keep things simple)
  3. Recite Mantras or Affirmations if you find it useful to bring your attention back to your intention.
  4. Remember: Negative Emotions are TEACHERS. Ask: What is this “sadness” teaching me.
  5. Consider when was the first time feeling this negative emotion, or dealing with this type of situation. What was helpful? What didn’t work?

In real life, I tend to enjoy a Minimalist Lifestyle. Simple. Clutter-free. Organized. It’s one thing to declutter a home but a completely different thing to declutter a mind. Reflecting on metaphors really helps to clean out the cobwebs & unpack the old broken records in the mind. Reflecting on these questions might really help to create Clarity & Tranquility.

Give it a try and share your reflections in the comments below!

My Dream of Running an AirBnB

September 30, 2018

In the dream, I’m running an AirBnB. After the visitors leave I go into the place and find they’ve left it in complete disarray which gives me a feeling of frustration. I get busy cleaning it and it takes a long time to get it back to its original condition.

My Dream About Delivering Two Dead Babies

September 22, 2018

In the dream, I’m operating on the lead character in the series BONES. She’s the leading forensic anthropologist in the world, known for her excellence in studying the remains of murder victims. Alongside the coroner & forensic team she discovers cause of death, the murder weapon, and the murderer.

The reason I’m operating on her is that she’s become deathly ill and we were doing surgery to try to eliminate the cause of her illness. When operating, I discover she had two unborn fetuses in her womb and these were the cause of her illness. We removed the infant skeletons and knew she would be okay and recover. In the dream I was preparing for the grief she would feel when I tell her she had miscarried two babies. But also, I knew she had given birth to one, so of the set of triplets, one lived & two died.